The
SuluSuluArchipelagoArchipelago (Tausug: Sūg, Malay: Kepulauan Sulu, Filipino:
Kapuluan ng Sulu) is a chain of islands in the Pacific Ocean, in the
southwestern Philippines. The archipelago forms the northern limit of
the
Celebes SeaCelebes Sea and southern limit of the
SuluSulu Sea.[1] The Sulu
ArchipelagoArchipelago islands are within the
MindanaoMindanao island group, consisting
of the provinces of Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi.
The archipelago is not, as is often supposed, the remains of a land
bridge between
BorneoBorneo and the Philippines. Rather, it is the exposed
edge of small submarine ridges produced by tectonic tilting of the sea
bottom [2][3] Basilan, Jolo, and other islands in the group are
extinct volcanic cones rising from the southernmost ridge. Tawi-Tawi,
the southernmost island of the group, has a serpentine
basement-complex core with a limestone covering.[3] This island chain
is an important migration route for birds.
The largest municipalities in the area are on
MaimbungMaimbung and Jolo. The
larger island of
PalawanPalawan to its north, the coastal regions of the
westward-extending
Zamboanga PeninsulaZamboanga Peninsula of Mindanao, and the
north-eastern part of the island of
BorneoBorneo were formerly parts of the
thalassocratic Sultanate of Sulu.
The archipelago is the home of the indigenous Tausug people; various
group of Samal (or Sama) people including the semi-nomadic Badjaw; the
land-based Sama; the related
YakanYakan people; and the Jama
MapunMapun people.
The
Tausug languageTausug language is spoken widely in the
SuluSuluArchipelagoArchipelago as both
first and second languages throughout these islands. The Yakan
language is spoken mainly in
BasilanBasilan Island. Numerous dialects of
Sinama are spoken throughout the archipelago, from the Tawi-Tawi
Island group, to the
MapunMapun island group (Mapun), to the coast of
MindanaoMindanao and beyond.

The archipelago is geographically subdivided into several groups, most
significantly those around the main islands Basilan,
JoloJolo and
Tawi-Tawi. There are, however, other groups containing mostly small
islands; not all of these are inhabited:

The
SuluSuluArchipelagoArchipelago was part of the Islamic Sultanate of Sulu,
founded in 1405 by Shari’ful Hashem Syed Abu Bak’r. The sultanate
also included portions of Borneo, Mindanao, Palawan, and other islands
in the region.
From the first Spanish encounters with
JoloJolo island, the Spanish–Moro
conflict met firm and organised resistance from the Sultanate of Sulu.
Miguel López de LegazpiMiguel López de Legazpi had established a colony in Cebu in May 1565,
however the initial focus of the Spanish conquest to establish the
Spanish East IndiesSpanish East Indies was northwards. In June 1578 Francisco de Sande,
Governor-General of the Spanish East Indies, dispatched captain
Esteban Rodríguez de Figueroa and the Jesuit priest Juan del Campo
and the coadjutor Gaspar Gómez to Jolo, resulting in a negotiated
compromise where the
SuluSulu sultan paid a regular tribute in pearls. The
following year, Figueroa was awarded the sole right to colonise
Mindanao. In 1587, during a campaign against
BorneoBorneo launched by Sande,
Figueroa attacked and burned down Jolo. The Spaniards left
JoloJolo after
a few days.
The Joloanos resolved to resist Spanish intrusions. In response to
attacks, Joloanos raided Spanish settlements and reducciones. In 1593,
the first permanent
Roman CatholicRoman Catholic mission was established on the
Zamboanga Peninsula, and three years later, the Spanish Army launched
another attack on Jolo, which was repelled by the army of Rajah
Bongsu. In November 1593, the Spanish Empire sent Juan Ronquillo to
Tampakan to thwart the slave raiders. The following year, the Spanish
Army troops relocated to Caldera Bay (Recodo), Mindanao. In 1598,
another expedition was launched against Jolo, but was repelled by the
Joloanos. In late 1600, Captain Juan Gallinato with a group of about
200 Spanish soldiers attacked
JoloJolo but were unsuccessful. By 1601,
after three months of heavy fighting, the Spanish troops retreated. In
1628, a larger raiding force of about 200 Spanish army officers and
1,600 soldiers was organised to attack
JoloJolo to defeat the Moslem slave
raiders and traders, but the Spanish again failed to take Jolo. Again
on 17 March 1630, a large Spanish force of 2,500 soldiers attacked
JoloJolo but to no avail. When its commander Lorenzo de Olazo was wounded,
the Spaniards retreated.

On 4 January 1638, de Corcuera led a naval and military expedition of
about 80 ships and 2,000 troops to attack Jolo, but Sultan Wasit put
up stiff resistance. However, Sultan Wasit's kuta army suffered a
serious epidemic of tropical disease and he and his chieftains sought
refuge in the Dungun area of Tawi-Tawi. The Spanish Army easily
occupied Jolo, and a small garrison was left there to control the
area. The garrison was withered away by frequent raids launched by
Sultan Wasit, and by 1645, this garrison had been wasted away. This
was the first time that
JoloJolo had been occupied by the Spaniards for an
appreciable length of time. From 1663 to 1718, an interregnum of peace
occurred because the Spanish troops were ordered to abandon the
Zamboanga Peninsula, and forts south of that—and regroup in Manila
to prepare for the impending attack of Koxinga—which never happened.
Hostilities resumed in the 18th century, triggered by the 1718
decision by governor Gen Juan Antonio dela Torre Bustamante to
reconstruct the fort Real Fuerza de San José in Bagumbayan,
Zamboanga. The fort was completed in 1719 was renamed Real Fuerza del
Pilar de Zaragosa (Fort Pilar is its popular name today) and
inaugurated on 16 April. Three years later in 1722, the Spaniards
launched another expedition against
JoloJolo led by Andrés García; this
expedition failed. In 1731, General Ignacio Iriberri lead a force of
1000 to
JoloJolo and captured it after a lengthy siege, but the Spaniards
again left after a few days. In 1755, a force of 1,900 Spanish
soldiers led by the captains Simeón Valdez and Pedro Gastambide was
sent to
JoloJolo in revenge for the raids by Sultan Muiz ud-Din, but the
Spaniards were defeated. In 1775, after a Moro raid on Zamboanga,
Captain Vargas led a punitive expedition against Jolo, but his force
was repulsed.

In the second half of the 18th century,
Great BritainGreat Britain became a new
player in the archipelago After occupying
ManilaManila from 1762–64,
during the
Seven Years' WarSeven Years' War between Spain,
Great BritainGreat Britain and other
European powers, the
British ArmyBritish Army withdrew to the south and
established trading alliances between the
SuluSulu Sultanate and the
British East India Company. Spanish attacks on
JoloJolo were now directed
at weakening British trading interests in the south. In 1784, Aguilar
conducted a series of unsuccessful assaults against
JoloJolo and in 1796,
Spanish admiral José Alava was sent from
MadridMadrid with a powerful naval
fleet to stop the slave-raiding attacks from the
SuluSulu Sea. The British
presence was signalled when in 1798, the British Royal Navy, which had
established a base in Sulu, bombarded Fort Pilar in Zamboanga. In
1803, Lord Richard Wellesley, the Governor-General of India, ordered
Robert J. Fraquhar to transfer trading and military operations to
Balambangan island near Borneo. By 1895, the
Great BritainGreat Britain had
withdrawn its army and navy from the
SuluSulu Sea.
In 1815, the galleon trade across the
Pacific OceanPacific Ocean between the
PhilippinesPhilippines and Mexico ended, since Mexico had declared its
independence in 1810, and an extended war of independence was in
progress. Most of the other Spanish-ruled areas of the Americas had
also rebelled against their colonial masters. In 1821, the Philippine
Islands were administered directly from Madrid, rather than via the
Viceroy of Mexico, since Mexico and its southern neighbours had won
their independence from Spain. The Spanish Empire sought to end the
"Moro threat". In 1824, the Marina Sutil, a light and manoeuvrable
naval force under Capitan Alonso Morgado was sent to confront the
slave raiders in the
SuluSulu Sea.
1844–1898: Spanish occupation[edit]
Main articles: Spanish East Indies, British North Borneo, and Madrid
Protocol of 1885

In 1844, Governor General Narciso Claveria led yet another expedition
against
JoloJolo and in 1848, Claveria with powerful gunboats Magallanes,
El Cano, and Reina de Castilla brought from Europe supervised the
attack on the Balangingi stronghold in Tungkil. The raid resulted in
the capture of many Sama Balangingi and the exile of many to the
tobacco fields of Cagayan Valley. The leader of the Sama, Paglima
Taupan, was not captured. With the fall of the Balangingi, a powerful
ally of the
SuluSulu Sultanate was decimated, beginning the decline of the
sultanate’s maritime sea power. In 1850, Governor General Juan
Urbiztondo continued with Claveria's campaign and annihilated the
remaining Balangingi strongholds at Tungkil. A raid on
JoloJolo that year
was a failure. On 28 February 1851, Urbiztondo launched another
campaign against Jolo, razed the whole town and confiscated 112 pieces
of artillery. The Spanish troops later withdrew. Also in 1851 a peace
treaty was signed between the
SuluSulu Sultanate and the Spanish, though
the terms were understood differently by each party.
In 1876, the Spanish launched a campaign to occupy Jolo. Spurred by
their need to curb slave raiding, and concerned about other European
colonial efforts in the region, the Spanish made a final bid to
consolidate their rule in their southern frontier. The British had
established trading centres in
JoloJolo by the 19th century and the French
were offering to purchase
BasilanBasilan Island from the Spanish government.
On 21 February 1876, the Spaniards assembled the largest contingent
against Jolo, consisting of 9,000 soldiers in 11 transports, 11
gunboats, and 11 steamboats. Headed by Admiral Jose Malcampo, they
captured
JoloJolo and established a Spanish settlement.

Captain Pascual Cervera was appointed to set up a garrison and serve
as military governor; he served from March 1876 to December 1876
followed by Jose Paulin (December 1876 – April 1877), Carlos
Martinez (Sept 1877 – Feb 1880), Rafael de Rivera (1880–81),
Isidro G. Soto (1881–82), Eduardo Bremon, (1882), Julian Parrrado
(1882–84), Francisco Castilla (1884–86), Juan Arolas (1886–93),
Caesar Mattos (1893), Venancio Hernandez (1893–96), and Luis Huerta
(1896–99).
The Spaniards were never secured in Jolo, and by 1878 they had
fortified the town with a perimeter wall and tower gates, built inner
forts called Puerta Blockaus, Puerta España, and Puerta Alfonso XII,
and two outer fortifications named Princesa de Asturias and Torre de
la Reina when Sultanate of
SuluSulu formally recognised Spanish
sovereignty in middle of 19th century, but these areas remained
partially ruled by the Spanish as their sovereignty was limited to
military stations and garrisons and pockets of civilian settlements.
Troops, including a cavalry unit with its own lieutenant commander,
were garrisoned within the protective walls. In 1880 Colonel Rafael
Gonzales de Rivera, who was appointed by the Governor General,
dispatched the 6th Regiment to
SiasiSiasi and
BongaoBongao Islands.
The Spaniards' stronghold was sporadically attacked. On 22 July 1883,
it was reported that three unnamed men had succeeded in penetrating
Jolo's town plaza and killed three Spaniards. The word
“Ajuramentado” was coined by the Spanish colonel Juan Arolas after
witnessing several such raids while serving with the
JoloJolo garrison.
1898–1946: American occupation[edit]
Main articles:
Spanish–American WarSpanish–American War and Insular Government of the
Philippine Islands

In 1898, the war between Spain and America broke out. Commodore George
Dewey of the
US NavyUS Navy defeated the Spanish fleet in the Battle of
ManilaManila Bay, following which the American army occupied Manila. The
United States took possession of the
PhilippinesPhilippines under international
law after the 1898 Treaty of Paris ended the war.
The
Philippine–American WarPhilippine–American War followed in 1898 for three months,
during which the American military fought and defeated the Philippine
forces under
Emilio AguinaldoEmilio Aguinaldo for control of the Philippines.
After the Philippine–American War, the
Moro RebellionMoro Rebellion (1899–1913)
independence movement continued the Spanish–Moro conflict, now
against the United States occupation of the Philippines. The Sulu
ArchipelagoArchipelago was considered part of Islamic Moroland by the movement.
World War II[edit]
See also: Military history of the
PhilippinesPhilippines during World War II
In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States in the Philippines
and at Pearl Harbor, and the United States declared war on Japan as
part of World War II. Japan conquered the
PhilippinesPhilippines in 1942, in the
PhilippinesPhilippines Campaign (1941–42). In 1944 the Allies' Philippines
Campaign (1944–45) against the Japanese occupation began with the
Battle of Leyte Gulf. Allied forces eventually drove the Japanese from
the islands.
1946–present: Philippine Independence[edit]
On 4 July 1946, the
PhilippinesPhilippines became an independent nation. The
fortifications of
JoloJolo remained in good state during the American
occupation when its walls, gates, and the buildings within it were
photographed. Early 20th century photographs of
JoloJolo show a
well-ordered town, neatly laid out in a grid of streets and
blocks—characteristics of Spanish urbanism applied with a military
rigidity. In the postwar years the walls degraded.
JoloJolo suffered major destruction due to bombardment and fire during the
military operations against the Moro Islamic independence forces in
JoloJolo in 1973. As of 2013[update], short stretches of degraded
perimeter wall still exist, but are covered by buildings or are
partially demolished to less than 1 metre (3.3 ft) in height.
Autonomy[edit]

The Autonomous Region of Muslim
MindanaoMindanao (ARMM) is the current
political entity that the
SuluSuluArchipelagoArchipelago islands are within.
Bangsamoro, officially known as the Autonomous Government of
Bangsamoro (Filipino: Nagsasariling Pamahalan ng Bangsamoro), is a
proposed autonomous political entity within the Philippines. The
proposal is part of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro, a
preliminary peace agreement signed between the Moro Islamic Liberation
Front and the Philippine government.
See also[edit]